Post #8 Almanac

Max and Leah's relationship is crazy! I do not even think that I fully understand it. Obviously they are not in love with each other. As one of them said so. And yet they do not divorce. They are not separated; they just do not sleep together. Or Max sleeps at his office or the golf course. So if they are not together, do not love, and hardly ever see each other... What’s the point? I mean when I decide that I want to get married I want a relationship where my husband cannot wait to get home to work and cannot wait to spend time with me. I would hate to go through a relationship like Max and Leah's so why are they together. I have a feeling it’s something to do with money or something in there past that we have not yet been told. Can you imagine being married to a man who kills for a living? And to know that he does it. I think I would run away crying out of fright if my husband killed. As I read along in Almanac of the Dead I just become more and more confused. I thought that I was getting a handle on the book, but then all of the sudden I get througwn for a loop. We were talking about the twins, Seese, and Sterling. But then we start talking about Leah, Max, Mernardo, etc. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND! What is going on! I hope things start tying together. Because this book is frustrating!!!

Post #7 Yellow Raft

IDA IS A NUT. I mean I started reading this final part of Yellow Raft in Blue water and i am thinking to myself that this woman is A COMPLETE LOONEY. Well come to think of it after i had read it, if i had the same thing happen to me that happened to her... I would be a Looney too. But even still. Why the heck would she be okay with ruining her own life for the sake of her family? I have the hunch that this is another thing that I cannot comprehend because Ida's heritage. But how does she so passively agree to take charge of the baby. And if she so agrees to take care of the baby why does she have such a 'tude regarding Christine. I mean I can understand why Christine turned out to be so messed up. I would be to if I had a "mother" who acted like Ida. Selfish nature runs hard in this family. First Rayona and her running away because she has issues with her mom and "Aunt Ida." Then Christine and her defiance in wanting to be a “true American.” She even goes off to Seattle and Tacoma and marries an African American Man. And honestly I bet she did it 95% to piss off Aunt Ida. But these women are the way they are because of the mother ahead of them. I mean can you imagine a family dinner with this family? Jeez I think I would want to skip dessert and let me tell you... I never skip dessert!

Post #6 Yellow Raft

Christine is one crazy woman. Responsibility has to come into one's life at some point or another. But from day one she did not seem to have it. Nor when she got pregnant and had a child did responsibility come into play. I find the relationship between her and her brother troubling. I fight with my brother (who is three years younger than me, but for one month he can claim he is two years and eleven months) constantly! We fight when there is nothing to fight about. And when Lee is born, Christine takes over this mothering thing as if she is not only four years older than him but far far more. I wonder if she needs the attention because "Aunt Ida" seems to not care. Lee is the only person who cares anything about her because he looks up to her and that’s why. Or maybe the fact that Lee is the shining star in the community on the reservation and Christine has none that makes her want to focus on him so much. Which probably would explain the Dayton issue as well. What Lee loves the most is his best friend, someone that Christine can have no part of. And that is why she temps him so. And seduces him outside the Powwow. And really Christine never had a real relationship with Dayton, which I find interesting that she continues to tell Rayona that he was her boyfriend. When really they spent the high school years fighting over time with Lee and pushing Lee to do something or rather.

Post #5 Yellow Raft

The character of Rayona interests me. She has a quiet, powerful confidence that I admire greatly. For such a young age (she is 15) I am impressed with the maturity she seems to have. At the age of fifteen I think I was more concerned about my volleyball game, how I looked each morning before school, and whether or not the cute guy next to me thought I was cute back. I was definitely not concerned about finding a place to stay at night or getting food to eat. I have never had to worry about my mother trying to commit suicide or dumping me on the side of a road on a highway. The differences I have had in my life compared to Rayona have been great. I have been given a confidence die to what I have been brought up as from my parents. But Rayona lacks this background and yet she has a confidence about her. So does confidence come from where you grow up and your background or from a person on the inside? I looked at the readings and I have become confused about the reaction the kids on the reservation had with Rayona. In class we were told that being half African American and half Native American was “cool” on the reservation. So why do the kids on the reservation not take to Rayona? They shun her from immediately from the time they met her. I find this interesting because a people that have been so discriminated themselves are discriminating against a type of people themselves. This I feel is ironic and hy[picrytical.

Post #4 Almanac

I like the style of this novel (Almanac of the Dead). I hope I do not sound snotty when I say this but I feel like I cannot connect to the stories in this book. I have never lived anywhere near "the bottom" and the cast of characters that emerge from this novel baffle me. From the odd twins, Root, Seese, these are characters that seem so far removed from everything I know that comprehending what they do sometimes goes over my head. The actual book of the Almanac of the Dead is CRAZY. We are over two hundred something pages into the book and still have no idea how not only do the characters connect but why this dang book is at the center of it all. I mean eventually everything will come together and a "ah ha" moment will turn on a light bulb... But apparently we are not there yet. We were introduced to the kids who saved the Almanac I wonder if someone they are relatives of the old twins? I find it odd that these children were on their own with such important documents. They were given such responsibility and at the same time had no idea what they were or meant. I feel like these kids are central to the story but again with Silko's mysterious capabilities... We thus of course we have no idea. While I think this novel is extremely difficult to read through this novel I am glad this is assigned to us. Reading and reacting to stories different from where we come from is what makes us a better person all together.

Post #3

Definitely did not see that one coming! Big red + Fiction (and now rather Patricia Tunny) = Lovers forever apparently. So I can get over that. Still think it’s a bit awkward… But we’re moving on. I love the language of this book. Big Red has passion for photography, but instead of saying “oh yeah I finished the roll gunna get them printed and hopefully they will be pretty sweet images.” Eric Gansworth says “at the last exposure my camera begins to whine in its automatic-rewind mode, the film finally dropped out neatly into my hand, a bullet of images ready to explode” (Gansworth 180). Who does that any more, the old way of saying what you mean with flowery and hidden messages within the words. Girls BEWARE if you ever see Eric Gansworth you may fall madly in love with him due to his romantic language and wording that provokes images in your head. Shoot I know I would. I mean my boyfriend can’t even get past saying “Babe, you hot.” Yup that’s it ladies, I know how did I fall for his charismatic charm right? Wouldn’t the world be more enjoyable if we said things like “the gleaming saliva arcs upward in the humid May air, then back earthward…” and “my mother saying my thick Indian lips were beautiful, a small bud, ready to bloom from within…” Yeah I am going to have to say that life would be a tad more interesting if we used words like that to describe things every day. Haha oh well I suppose I am going to have to wait till the time machine is create so I can go back to Shakespeare’s time to enjoy being the object of some man’s affection being described with pretty words. Anyone have a time machine?

Post #2

Okay- An icky old man who has a son half of Fiction’s age is NOT supposed to do the dirty with her! I am at a loss. Why does a girl who seems to have nothing to lose since she is already at the, excuse my pun, “at the bottom of the totem pole” date a man much older than her? He has a son who is twelve! She is twenty three! The line that evokes my gag reflex is “let me see if you measure up to your name?” I do not understand the character of Fiction. She is living on a reservation where no one wants her, he father doesn’t recognize her, and yet she stays. She then decides to get involved in a way older man with a son. In our culture you see this often (and it still evokes my gag reflexes), usually an older man gets caught like a helpless fish by a woman ready to devour him. But these women are not twenty three; I wonder if this is something that happens on reservations? Does this story have anything to do with Bud not recognizing Fiction so she goes to the next father figure she has available? With so many other plots and stories going on in this book, why does Eric Gansworth include this sideline story? I have the feeling that they will not work out in the end and that by the end of the book something more will have developed between Big Red and Fiction. I guess we’ll have to stay tuned folks…